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Dr. Omar Ashour is a Senior Lecturer in Security Studies in the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, at the University of Exeter. He is an Associate Fellow at Chatham House in London and the author of The De-Radicalization of Jihadists: Transforming Armed Islamist Movements, the first book on transitions from armed to unarmed activism by several Islamists organisations in the Middle East and North Africa. His recent publications include “Collusion to Collision: Islamist-Military Relations in Egypt” , “Sinai’s Stubborn Insurgency” and “How Does the “Islamic State” Militarily Endure and Expand?.” Dr. Ashour specialises in asymmetric armed conflict, Islamist movements, insurgency/counterinsurgency, terrorism studies, and democratisation (with a main focus on civil-military relations and security sector reform). He previously served as a senior consultant for the United Nations on security sector reform, counter-terrorism, and de- radicalization issues. He is a regular contributor to media outlets including the BBC, al-Jazeera, Sky News, CNN, al-Arabiya and others. His op-eds are frequently published in Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Independent, al-Jazeera.net, CNN.com, Project Syndicate and other media outlets in seven languages, in over 40 countries. He is currently working on a book analysing the military tactics and strategies of IS in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Egypt.
“The ‘Islamic State’ Rocked Crusader Europe Again. Hundreds of Deaths and Injuries as a Result of Martyrdom Operations in Brussels,” read the headline of the Islamic State’s (ISIS) Arabic-language newsletter al-Naba’ on March 21, 2016. There were not much details about the terrorist bombings, but they certainly follow a pattern established since early 2015. “Do not look for specific targets. Kill anybody,” said Boubaker Hakim, an ISIS commander of French-Tunisian origins, in an interview initially published in March 2015 by ISIS’ French-language magazine Dar al-Islam.
